Iraqis gather at the site where two car bombs exploded in Baghdad Jadida or "New Baghdad" district.

By Adel Fakher
Baghdad, Feb 18, (VOI) – Fifty-five civilians were killed and 140 others wounded in the two car bombings that ripped through a souk (popular market) earlier on Sunday in New Baghdad Area east of the capital, said an Iraqi police source.
"Victims of the bombing attacks in eastern Baghdad jumped to 55 casualties and 140 injuries, all of them civilians," the source, who refused to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Earlier in the day Iraqi police sources said the two consecutive blasts killed seven civilians and wounded 15 others.
The source said the number of casualties will likely grow as many of the wounded are in critical condition.
The attack comes five days after the official announcement of the new security plan in Baghdad. Brig. Qassem al-Musawi, the spokesman for the general command of the armed forces, had said on Saturday that violence in Baghdad had toned down by 80 percent in the first three days of the plan.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had also said on Saturday, after a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that plan has started to yield fruits as the rate of casualties lowered to only 10 people per day.
AE